This article originally appeared on Money.com.
As Indiana governor Mike Pence and Virginia senator Tim Kaine clashed during Tuesday night’s debate, economists and economic pundits of various political stripes took shots at what the two vice-presidential candidates had to say about jobs, Social Security, and the overall economy. Here are some of the highlights:
Moderator Elaine Quijano of CBSNews started off discussion of the economy by citing a government watchdog’s report: “According to the nonpartisan Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget, neither of your economic plans will reduce the growing $19 trillion gross national debt. In fact, your plans would add even more to it.”
In response to Kaine’s and Pence’s dispute over whose plan would be better for balancing the federal judgment, here was the tweet from…that very same Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget:
.@timkaine is right. Trump would increase debt much more than Clinton. #debates https://t.co/mkLmfHyB6j #debates pic.twitter.com/oEzCpVrYqD
— CRFB.org (@BudgetHawks) October 5, 2016
Also at issue was Social Security: How can the system—a linchpin of retirement for most American senior citizens—be saved?
Adam Brandon, president of the free-enterprise, anti-big-government group FreedomWorks, took issue with Democrat Kaine’s defense of Social Security which he called “one of the greatest programs that the American government has ever done,” adding “Social Security has enabled people to retire with dignity and overwhelmingly not be in poverty.”
@timkaine is lying about SS. Giving people choice over their own lives and retirement gives them dignity. #VPDebate
— Adam Brandon (@adam_brandon) October 5, 2016
MIT professor Simon Johnson, former chief economist for the International Monetary Fund, objected to Pence’s evasions in response to Kaine’s criticism of his past support for privatizing Social Security:
Now Mike Pence is close to lying about his record on social security — he wanted to privatize it, was to the right of George W Bush on this
— Simon Johnson (@baselinescene) October 5, 2016
Pence had support the free-market advocacy group Club for Growth, though:
"We will never ever engage in a risky scheme to privatize social security." Well, you should, @timkaine https://t.co/x2GcgghnMt
— Club for Growth (@club4growth) October 5, 2016
